LOO BLUES: LIGHT TO THWART DRUG INJECTORS

South Sydney Council's new street toilets will be fitted with blue lighting
to stop heroin addicts injecting themselves with drugs.

The blue lighting, which makes it difficult for users to see their veins,
will be fitted in seven of the $250,000 high-tech cubicles the council
plans to have installed by September.

The toilet manufacturer, JCDecaux Australia, has tested the blue lighting
in Amsterdam and said its pilot scheme had deterred users.

The move to install the lights follows reports from San Francisco that
addicts had used similar toilets to inject themselves. Those toilets do not
have the special lighting but the 20-minute time limit, after which the
doors open automatically, proved attractive to drug users.

JCDecaux Australia's managing director, Ms Angela Clark, said it was up to
the councils as to how long they set the timers.

Sydney City Council has ordered 10 toilets but has not yet decided whether
it would have the lighting installed.

A council spokesman said the evidence it had received showed some addicts
were so desperate to use the toilet they would keep jabbing themselves with
the needle until they found a vein.

The floor of the JCDecaux toilet is pressure sensitive and once the user
leaves, the toilet bowl retracts into the wall where it is scrubbed clean
and a water jet sprays the floor.

The toilets can be operated by coins or by using a smart card.

The Mayor of South Sydney, Councillor Vic Smith, said the lighting would
minimise intravenous drug use and make the toilets safer for residents and
visitors.

King Street in Newtown and Taylor Square, Darlinghurst, are among the areas
the toilets will be installed.

Randwick Council has ordered four but has not considered using the blue
lighting. "However, that's not to say we would not be interested," a
council spokeswoman said.